"Lee Hwa-young Reverses Position on Requesting Gyeonggi Governor's North Korea Visit to Ssangbangwool"

Former Gyeonggi Province Deputy Governor for Peace Lee Hwa-young [Image source=Yonhap News]

Lee Hwa-young, former Deputy Governor for Peace of Gyeonggi Province, who is accused of being involved in the Ssangbangwool Group's remittance to North Korea case, partially reversed his previous stance by stating that he "requested Ssangbangwool to promote the governor's visit to North Korea."

On the 18th, the Criminal Division 11 of Suwon District Court (Presiding Judge Shin Jin-woo) held a continuation trial for Lee, who was indicted on charges including bribery under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes and violation of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act.

On that day, the presiding judge requested, "The prosecution recently submitted a statement saying there is a slight change in the defendant's position regarding the existing charges. Please explain this."

Lee's defense team stated, "Regarding whether there was a request for the governor's visit expenses to be paid on behalf, the position was 'completely unaware and uninvolved,' but (in a recent prosecution interrogation) he testified that he said, 'Please try to promote the visit to North Korea once' to Ssangbangwool."

They further explained, "The defendant attended the '2nd International Conference for Asia-Pacific Peace and Prosperity' held in the Philippines in July 2019 (hosted by Gyeonggi Province). At that time, it seems Ssangbangwool and North Korea had close contact, so he testified that he said, 'Since you seem to be close to North Korea, please promote the visit to North Korea.'

However, he did not clarify whether the request went beyond promoting the visit to requesting the payment of $3 million in visit expenses. Regarding the $5 million for North Korea's smart farm support project, which Gyeonggi Province was supposed to cover, he maintained, "The position remains the same as before," continuing to deny it.

Previously, Lee was accused of receiving over 300 million won in bribes and illegal political funds from Ssangbangwool Group between 2018 and 2022 in exchange for supporting inter-Korean economic cooperation, through methods such as providing corporate card and vehicle use and paying false salaries to his associates.

He was also additionally indicted on charges including violation of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act for involvement in the North Korea remittance case, in which former Chairman Kim Sung-tae allegedly delivered $8 million (for Gyeonggi Province's smart farm and governor's visit expenses) to North Korean officials in 2019. Kim claims that after receiving a request from Lee, he heard from North Korean officials that "visit expenses ($3 million) are needed," and subsequently discussed with Lee and paid $3 million to North Korea.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.